Easter Egg Organic Radish Seeds

Easter Egg Organic radish seeds are CERTIFIED ORGANIC! Easter Egg is a blend of multicoloured radishes. This blend has all the radish colours – they grow at about the same rate and are all white inside but the skin colours are white, red, or purple. The roots are round, crisp, and flavourful.

Time your radish plantings a week apart for a longer harvest period. The secret to growing a great radish is to plant when the weather is cool, to not plant too close together and to harvest promptly before the roots get woody and bitter. Every part of the radish is edible. If you leave some of your radishes to go to seed you’ll find the pods before seed set are tender and juicy with a wonderfully sharp flavour that is excellent in stir-fries and soups. If you harvest the seeds before they dry they have a taste and texture reminiscent of caviar. Imagine the fresh seeds lightly sautéed with garlic and thyme on a bed of radish leaves. A gourmet delight! Follow along with this handy How to Grow Radishes from seed Guide and crunchy salad delights.

LatinRaphanus sativus Family: Brassicaceae

Difficulty Easy

We Recommend: If you don’t already have a favourite, go for variety! The certified organic Easter Egg Mix (RD676) can’t be surpassed for showing everything a radish can be. Not only do you get a mix of colours, but you’ll come to appreciate subtle flavour differences, and differences in piquancy, or “hotness.”

Season & ZoneSeason: Cool seasonExposure: Full sunZone: All

Timing Radishes can be grown all season but they’re easiest when sown March/April and again August through October. Optimal soil temperature: 18-24°C (65-75°F). Seeds should sprout in 5-7 days.

Growing Ideal pH: 6.0-6.8. Radishes are moderate to heavy feeders. Best in rich, loamy soil amended with composted manure. add 1 cup of complete organic fertilizer for every 3m (10′) of row for background fertility. Lime beds the previous fall. The real secret to growing this little vegetable is speed. Sow a short row frequently, thin them quickly, keep them watered, eat them quickly, and sow some more.

Harvest Harvest promptly when radishes are the size of large marbles. Leaves and developing seedpods are also tasty.

Diseases & Pests Root maggots and flea beetles can be a problem. Expect to lose 20-30% of your crop to maggots if you don’t use a floating row cover.

Companion Planting Plant radishes near beans, beets, celeriac, chervil, cucumber, lettuce, mint, parsnip, peas, spinach, squash, and tomatoes. Avoid planting near agastache or potatoes. It is said that planting 3 or 4 icicle radishes around the mound where you plant squash, and allowing them to grow and bloom, will prevent most pests of squash and cucumber.

The genus name for this vegetable, Raphanus, comes from the Greek for “quickly appearing,” and it’s wholly appropriate. Radish seeds can germinate in as little as three days, and be ready for eating in under four weeks from planting, so they really are the speed demons of the vegetable garden. The whole plant is edible, although the leaves can be tough and bitter tasting. Most people grow radishes for the crunchy, sometimes spicy roots. Here are some other fun facts about radishes.

Radishes are members of the Brassica family, and their original wild form can still be found from western Asia to the Mediterranean region, where it grows alongside its cousins, turnip and mustard. Radishes have been cultivated in China for 3,000 years and in Europe prior to the time of the Greek empire. Certainly, by the 1500s, several named varieties were being cultivated in France and elsewhere in Europe, and some of these heirlooms remain on the market today.

Writing in the early 17th century, the physician Nicholas Culpepper didn’t seem to think much of the radish:

Garden Rhaddishes are in wantonness by the gentry eaten as a sallad, but they breed but scurvy humours in the stomach, and corrupt the blood, and then send for a physician as fast as you can; this is one cause makes the owners of such nice palates so unhealthful; yet for such as are troubled with the gravel, stone, or stoppage of urine, they are good physic, if the body be strong that takes them; you may make the juice of the roots into a syrup if you please, for that use: they purge by urine exceedingly.

In truth, radishes are high in ascorbic acid, folic acid, and potassium, as well as vitamin B6, riboflavin, magnesium, copper, and calcium.

Radishes may be round or elongated, and they come in a wide range of colours, although the interior flesh is always white. Round Black Spanish is an old heirloom variety dating back to 1548. It grows to a much larger size than the small red, pink, or white varieties, and has rough, dark brown to black skin over its roots, with a hotter flavour. The daikon (R. sativus var. longipinnatus) is a very large, elongated, white radish from Asia that grows to 35cm (14”) long. Though many people think of daikon as a Japanese radish, it originated in China. Interestingly, the Chinese word for carrot translates literally as “giant foreign radish.”

On the 23rd of December each year in Oaxaca, Mexico, the Noche de Rabanos (Night of the Radishes) marks an important point in Christmas celebrations. Locally grown giant radishes (some weighing 10 lbs!) are carved into figures of saints, conquistadors, and revolutionary heroes, as well as animals and scenes depicting the Nativity. These go on display in the zocalo, and are rated for quality. The winner of the competition gets a cash prize and local fame. The origins of this festival remain unclear, but the first radish art competition was inaugurated by the mayor of Oaxaca back in 1897.

How to Grow:

Difficulty: Easy. Radishes work well in large containers.

Timing: Radishes can be grown all season, but they’re easiest when sown March/April and again August through October. In the heat of summer, try growing some in partial shade.

Growing: The real secret to growing this little vegetable is speed. Sow a short row frequently, thin them quickly, keep them watered, eat them quickly, and sow some more. Winter radishes need to stay in the ground much longer, where they will stay fresh until eating.

Harvest: Harvest promptly when radishes are the size of marbles. Leaves and developing seed pods are also tasty. Harvest seed pods while they are still green.

Storage: Radishes do not retain their crisp, appealing texture for long after harvest, so eat them fresh.